The unique landmark of Saxony - Bastei!
On a sunny October morning we set off for Bastei via Pirna and Lohmen. The weather that day presented us with a gift, not that there was no rain, but not even a single cloud in the sky. And nature pleased the eye with green meadows, forests that had almost lost their leaves, and small cozy villages. Of course, it is much more pleasant to drive here than on the autobahn.
For 5-6 kilometers, signs begin to appear, and here is the first large parking lot on the left, but the navigator shows that another 3 km of the road and we turn right and drive on. And many people parked here too, because people were walking along the sides of the road, with children, strollers, dogs ...probably, they wanted to take a walk. These 3 km can also be traveled by bus, which runs back and forth, from the parking lot to the rocks.
After passing these 3 km, a parking lot appears on the left, we turn around, the guards show the place where to park the car, we park and for another 7-10 minutes we walk forward on foot to the rocks.
Bastei is located on the right bank of the Elbe between the Rathen resort and the town of Wehlen, open to the public all year round, free of charge. This nature reserve, formed many millennia ago, is divided between the Czech Republic and Germany. In the Czech Republic it is called the Sandstone Mountains, and in Germany it is called Saxon Switzerland (Sä chsische Schweiz).
Bastei is a formation of sandy rocks that rise above the Elbe to a height of 194 meters. We pass by the hotel and cafe, and here is the sign. To the right, we don’t go straight to the famous bridge, we turn a little to the left, down the stairs, to the observation deck. There are a little less people here, there are no those with strollers with small children, and those with dogs. At the top, no one pushes, no one interferes with anyone, we could slowly and with pleasure examine and photograph everything.
If the sun did not shine into the lens, the view of the bridge with its massive rocks would be wonderful.
The bridge was built in the 1850s and was originally wooden, then it was reconstructed, now it is an architectural monument protected by the state.
Musicians and artists from all over Europe often visited this beautiful place, and the Russian composer Scriabin also visited this place when he traveled through Germany.
And we go down and only now we are heading to the bridge over the abyss / gorge, called Mardertelle. There are already noticeably more people here, just a crowd, and everyone wants to take a picture, and so that no stranger gets into the frame. But this does not work anymore, if someone stops, a “traffic jam” is already forming behind. I wondered why there were so many people, like Thursday, a working day ...
The bridge already offers views of the Elbe River valley, the Kö nigstein fortress visible in the distance, the small resort of Rathen (with a population of 500 inhabitants) with a crossing over the Elbe, by the way, many people start their ascent to the Bastei from here, but climb to such a height . . I did not want to give such a load to my body. Even the way that we went, it was a constant descent / ascent.
We pass further to the ruins of the Felsenburg Neurathen fortress, which was built by Czech knights in the middle of the 13th century. There will be a kiosk / ticket office on the left (just halfway to the Amselsee lake, but we didn’t go down to it), the ticket costs 1.50 euros / person. And it's good that many save on this, and they don't buy tickets, and they don't visit this wonderful place with viewing platforms ...The path goes only in one direction. There is no flow of oncoming tourists, wonderful.
Bridges have been laid over the gorges, people do not crowd them, I liked it here most of all, no one pushes with their elbows, does not breathe in the back ...here we stayed much longer. Such beauty around, what miracles nature does not create. Having bypassed the entire fortress, we leave it through the turntable, which works only in one direction, to the exit.
We pass to the next platform, a staircase leads to it, so narrow, so steep, although not very high. And the platform at the top is not particularly large, here it is most reasonable to wait a bit until the “upper” ones go down, and then go up, because it is difficult to diverge from oncoming people. But you can’t miss it, again, views of bizarre rocks, along which climbers climb here and there, on the banks of the Elbe ...all this indescribable beauty must be captured, and not only in memory.
And we have already returned back to the bridge, barely crossed it.
While wandering around the fortress of Neurathen, the people increased significantly. Tourist groups have already arrived, then there is a crowd with a guide, then here. Again, bewilderment, it seems to be not a vacation, in Germany it has already ended in all the Lands, and the people keep coming and coming. It's good that we left early, at about nine o'clock in the morning, but if a little later ...
Then we go up partly along a gentle slope, partly along steps strewn with colorful leaves, to the last observation deck in our excursion. And that was the last climb.
The largest venue with an incredible amount of people. Apparently everyone goes first to her, and then who goes where. I had to wait about 15 minutes until a place at the very edge was freed up and it would be possible to take pictures. The last look at the Elbe, its banks, bizarre rocks ...and we return back. Past cafes and restaurants we return to the parking lot. At the parking meter, we paid 3.00 euros and headed for the Kö nigstein fortress.
Ko nigstein
It’s a little over 20 km to go to the Kö nigstein fortress, but the road took quite a long time, here it was dug up, then it was dug up there. We drove through picturesque places, but for some reason not populated. On the sides of the roads there are abandoned, old houses, all painted ...somehow it’s not customary to see something like from a horror fairy tale. And the roads there leave much to be desired.
At the entrance to the town of Kö nigstein one can already see a powerful rocky structure - the fortress itself. This town is small, and everywhere there are signs on how to get there. You can’t drive directly to the foot of the fortress, I saw only a parking lot for the disabled there, and below there is a multi-storey paid parking lot for everyone, an information desk, souvenir kiosks, cafes, etc.
Parked the car, got out, looked around. Here it is a fortress, and before it you still have to go and go up the hill, but a train and a bus go there. Round-trip train ticket/4.00 EUR/person Not cheap at all for a 5-minute drive, but you don’t want to climb.
The train runs very often, there were a lot of people during our visit. Then it turned out that October 31 in Saxony was a day off for everyone, the Reformationstag holiday. But this will now be relevant for those who will gather there next fall. This means that the shops are all closed, total. transport runs on a holiday schedule, etc. , I don’t know how museums work.
So, we arrived by train to the fortress, the entrance is paid. We bought a combined ticket: entrance to the fortress + lift by elevator, 8.00 euros / person. You can go up there without an elevator, but it’s very high, and we only have time until 17:00, because the last train leaves the fortress at that time, down to the parking lot. Yes, at six o'clock in the evening it is already starting to get dark, because Germany switches the clocks to winter time, so we have a difference with Russia of 3 hours now, until April.
The fortress is located on the banks of the Elbe, on a 150-meter cliff, a kind of unique in Germany, striking, of course, both in size and height. You involuntarily wonder how this could have been built back in the 13th century?
At the beginning of the 15th century the castle passed to Saxony. From the 16th century the fortress served as a refuge for the royal family during the war. Jewels and the state treasury were hidden here. From the end of the 16th century The fortress also served as a prison.
The panoramic elevator did not work, we went up on the usual one. Coming out of the elevator, we turned right, and thus made a circular sightseeing tour around the fortress. From time to time there are watchtowers, cannons ...the path is flat, all strewn with fallen leaves, but it is very pleasant to walk, it smells of autumn, all the same rotten leaves, extraordinary beauty all around, wherever you look, and what is no less important, no one interferes, because the entire fortress wall is one large circular observation deck!
We did not go anywhere: neither the castle, nor the powder store, nor the barracks, nor the well house ...anywhere at all, although we passed by. To do this, you need to plan for this fortress all day. And to be honest, the New Arsenal, the Old Arsenal, the Artillery Shed and so on are somehow of little interest to us. It was much more pleasant to just walk around and see everything from the outside. Below, at the foot of the fortress, there is a path around it. You can go around the entire fortress both from above and below.
3 hours flew by unnoticed and it was necessary to return to the elevator in order to catch the last train. Having moved down, there was nowhere else to hurry, it's time to have lunch / dinner. We went to the Neue Schä nke restaurant. Not big, cozy, the food is delicious, but the order will have to wait about an hour. But this is as usual in such restaurants, where food is not heated in the microwave, but cooked to order. While we were looking at what we had filmed on our cameras, everything had already been brought to us.
At seven o'clock in the evening, already in complete darkness, we left for Dresden. Before reaching Pirna, we got into a 6-8 km traffic jam, and this is on a country road. After driving 2 km in 30 minutes, we turned around and drove in the opposite direction. The navigator, as usual, “beeped” a little that we were not driving correctly and that we needed to turn around, but then he found some kind of bypass road, and we already reached the city normally.
Now back to Dresden and its museums.
Dresden Picture Gallery (Gemä ldegalerie "Alte Meister") + Porcelain Museum (Porzellansammlung)
We came to the art gallery at the opening, by 10:00, there were not many people at all. Tickets were not bought in advance, this is not necessary, you can freely buy on the spot, 10.00 euros / person. , regardless of whether you go to all 3 museums (+ Porzellansammlung + Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon) or just to the art gallery. Wardrobe 0.50 cents. An audio guide costs 3.00 euros + any identity document, whether it's a driver's license or a passport, is taken as a deposit.
It turns out that I passed by it more than once.
And of course, do not pass by such works as Botticelli's "Madonna and Child with John the Baptist", Veronese's "Madonna with the Cuccina Family", Giorgione + Titian's "Sleeping Venus", by the way, in this hall there will be another painting with Venus "Ruhende" Venus" Palma il Vecchio, and the audio guide tells about both paintings at once. "Caesar's Denarius", the plot of the picture is based on the biblical saying "Caesar's - to Caesar, God's - gods! " » Very interesting to hear about it. Do not pass by the "Chocolate Girl" by Lyotard, the paintings by Canaletto... , "Christ Healing the Blind" by El Grec and many other paintings.
We didn’t take pictures of anything, and it’s impossible, I found here a few pictures on the Internet. I stopped taking pictures of paintings a long time ago, even where it is allowed, for example, without a flash, because I noticed that both myself and my friends somehow look at pictures in books more willingly and with interest than in photographs.
Yes, and convenient, the book is always at hand.
I would not say that this art gallery is very large. The Hermitage seems to me much larger, or I was very young then (25 years ago) and everything was perceived differently, I don’t know. But here, slowly, we walked around everything in 3-3.5 hours. Despite the fact that some of the paintings lingered, listened to the audio guide, I especially liked the halls with soft sofas. You sit on the sofa in front of the picture and listen to what they tell you about it. Some paintings were returned 2-3 times, and some, from my list, had to be searched specifically. The story about Rubens' painting about the drunken Hercules "Der trunkene Herkules, von einer Nymphe und einem Saturn gefü hrt" was very interesting. Well, you can't describe everything. We have not been to such museums for a long time, so we really enjoyed it.
Of course, I bought a book with beautiful illustrations of paintings by the most famous artists.
The Porcelain Museum is located in another pavilion, and the entrance to it is in the bell pavilion Glockenspielpavillon 1, Zwinger plan:
http://www. der-dresdner-zwinger. de/fileadmin/user_upload/zwinger/pdf/Zwinger_Info_-_Lageplan. pdf
and there are collected more than 20 thousand copies, well, in fact, a lot: jugs, and vases, and birds, and animals, and sets, and biblical characters, and all kinds of figurines ...from Chinese, Japanese and German (Meiß ner Porzellans) porcelain. Everything is so beautiful...it was worth a visit, since we were in Dresden. And this museum took us about 3 hours. We no longer went to the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon, we were tired, whether it would be interesting there or not, the question remains.
Shops and restaurants:
1. And now we go to the confectionery for Dresdner Christstollen. I found 2 such shops in the center, one is located opposite the exit from the residence palace (Residenzschloss), and the other is next to Frauenkirche - An der Frauenkirche 5, next to the Nilton Hotel.
Prices are very different, packaging too, fillers too ...eyes run wide. Bought in 2 passes.
I bought everything for the first time, came to the hotel, laid it out, examined it, it seemed a little, not all my friends would get it, went again. The packages are elegant, festive, on some boxes of Fü rstenzug, while there was no one in the store, here I took a few photos.
2. We went to one of the souvenir stalls, which are at every turn. Christmas decorations and other items with a Christmas theme are already on sale. I can’t pass indifferently past Christmas tree decorations, at least one as a keepsake, but I buy it. The husband jokes: soon we will put up a Christmas tree 3 meters high and 4 wide, otherwise there will be nowhere to hang toys. But what can you do, this is my weakness.
3 Altmarkt. Die Altmarkt-Galerie, Webergasse 1, Thiemann perfumes and cosmetics.
On the way to Pragerstrasse we went to Altmarkt-Galerie, on the right there is a cozy cafe with very, very tasty cakes, sweets, and also Dresdner Stollen is sold there and all sorts of other things. And on the left will be this perfume and cosmetics store. Perfumes are not elite, not exclusive, ordinary, such firms as Calvin Klein, Dior, Gucci, Lancô me, Yves Saint Laurent, etc.
At that time there were discounts of 20%. I looked at some price tags for goods, then checked on the Internet, no, the prices there are not too high, like everywhere else, but you don’t often see a 20% discount. In our city, usually 10%, no more. The sales girls are trying to speak Russian, and when I told them not to strain and speak German, they were delighted, but proudly reported that they have a Russian-speaking saleswoman - Irina, for any consultations, because there are tourists from Ukraine and Russia.
I didn’t have much time to go shopping, especially since most of our shops and shopping centers are exactly the same.
4. I already wrote about one Neue Schä nke restaurant.
I liked the Italian restaurant Ausonia, located on Neumarkt 1. The tables are on the street, but inside it is more comfortable, the sofas are soft. We were just walking after the museums of the residence palace to the hotel, in the direction of the Frauenkirche, this restaurant met us on the way. Ordered 2 different large pizzas costing 9.80 and 11.50.
My pizza for 11.50 with shrimp, cheese and salmon was tastier than my husband's. I don't know about prices... expensive/cheap... cola 0.33 costs 2.90 euros, tiramizu cake 6.00 euros. Prices can be a little high, still the center of the city, but running around looking for where it is cheaper at a distant place ...when you want to eat here and now, we did not, and, as always, there is not enough time.
5. Restaurant WOK An der Frauenkirche 5, did not like it. Despite the fact that we really love Thai cuisine, here we didn’t like it at all, everything was served warmed up in the microwave, the pieces of duck were very overcooked, almost dried, the rice stuck together, and without any special spices . . In a word, everything was not tasty.
We were also in a restaurant on Mü nzgasse, but the check was not preserved, I don’t remember the name, I liked everything, but what’s the point in describing if I don’t remember the name.
Evening bus tour
On the last evening we took a sightseeing bus tour at 17:00.
We chose this specially to see Dresden in the night lights.
I saw two types of buses:
http://www. dresden. de/dig/de/rundfahrt/rundfahrten. php
We rode the one that is all red, Die Roten Doppeldecker, 15.00 Euro/person/ 1.5 hours. There were few people, 12 people + a guide who talked about Dresden without stopping. What a wonderful trip it was: the old city in the backlight looks even better and more beautiful from the opposite bank than from any bridge. The views of 3 castles are very impressive: Schloss Eckberg, Schloss Albrechtsberg, Villa Stockhausen in night illumination from the other side of the Elbe. There is a hotel and a restaurant in the Eckberg castle, in Albrechtsberg there are chic halls for banquets and celebrations, you can go on an excursion.
Villa Stockhausen also has restaurants overlooking the Elbe, concerts, private events are held there ...And there is a chic park around all three castles. At night, of course, the park was not visible, but in the spring, all in bloom ...at this time it would not be bad to visit.
Of course, we drove over the "Das Blaue Wunder" bridge, drove around the monument to Augustus the Strong several times, and there was a 15-minute stop at the world-famous Pfund dairy store.
Well, as you know, they don’t allow photographing anything there, so they only took pictures from the outside.
On this, our vacation in Dresden ended, not everyone saw what they wanted, maybe we will return.
